Poster of Bobby Seale, Black Panther Party Co-founder: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A poster depicting Black Panther Party Co-founder Bobby Seale. The poster is printed in black ink on an off-white background and features a large, black-and-white photograph of Seale, taken by Alan Copeland, and a Seale quotation below. The top two thirds of the poster is dominated by the close-up photograph of Seale. Seale is shown from the neck up, with his head tilted slightly towards his proper left shoulder, and he is looking downwards. He is wearing a white turtleneck sweater under a houndstooth blazer. Seale has a circle beard and a small goatee. Printed in large, centered, black text at the bottom third of the poster, directly under the photograph, is a Seale quotation that reads [If we worry about what's going to happen to us, / we couldn't accomplish anything…. Justice is / gonna come when the mass of people rise up / and see justice done…. The more they try to / come down on us, the more we'll expose them / for what they are…… / PIGS]. The letter [I] in [If] at the beginning of the quotation, and the word [PIGS] at the end of the quotation, are printed in a large handwriting-style font for emphasis. The photographer’s credit is printed in small black text at the bottom right corner of the photograph and reads, [Photo credit: Alan Copeland, Tribe]. In the bottom right corner of the poster is a union label printed in black text and a graphic. The union label is roughly diamond shaped with text printed inside at the top and bottom that reads [PRINTING PRESSMEN], [AND ASSISTANTS], with [UNION] and [LABEL] printed at the center of the diamond. The text, [OFFSET PRINTING], is printed below the diamond. The printer’s name, [BERKELEY GRAPHIC ARTS], is printed to the right of the union label. The back of the poster is plain and white.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1967-1970
• Printed by: Berkeley Graphic Arts, American, 1965 - 1970
• Photograph by: Alan Copeland, Canadian, born 1943
• Subject of: Bobby Seale, American, born 1936
• Subject of: Black Panther Party, American, 1966 - 1982
• Subject of: Berkeley Tribe, American, 1969 - 1972
• Subject of: International Printing Pressmen and Assistants’ Union, American, founded 1889
• Type: lithographs
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 23 1/16 × 17 1/2 in. (58.6 × 44.4 cm)
• Place printed: San Francisco, Alameda County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Black power
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Graphic design
• Topic: Justice
• Topic: Politics
• Topic: Resistance
• Object number: 2022.56.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Jerry Dommer
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Bobby Seale and Alan Copeland Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.